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Articles 61 - 89 of 89
Full-Text Articles in Law
Conflict Of Laws--The Law Controlling The Validity Of A Married Woman's Contract, Victor H. Lane
Conflict Of Laws--The Law Controlling The Validity Of A Married Woman's Contract, Victor H. Lane
Articles
The case of Poole v. Perkins (Va.), IO S. E. 240, involves that troublesome question of whether the validity of a contract is to be ruled by the law of the place where made, or by that of the place of performance.
The Seller's Action For The Price, John B. Waite
The Seller's Action For The Price, John B. Waite
Articles
WHEN a contract of sale has been broken by the buyer, before title has passed according to the usual rules of presumption, there arises the very practical question whether the seller can sue him for the purchase price, as such, or is limited to a suit for damages only. In the latter case his damage may happen to equal the purchase price, but it is usually considerably less than that amount. If the seller can recover the purchase price, as such, it must be because that price is legally due him as a consequence of the contract. The ultimate inquiry …
Subsequent Impossibility As Affecting Contractual Obligations, Ralph W. Aigler
Subsequent Impossibility As Affecting Contractual Obligations, Ralph W. Aigler
Articles
Where the law creates a duty or charge and the party is disabled to perform it without any default in him, and hath no remedy over, there the law will excuse him. * * * But where the party by his own contract creates a duty or charge upon himself, he is bound to make it good, if he may, notwithstanding any accident by inevitable necessity, because he might have provided against it by his contract. Paradine v. Jane, Aleyn, 26, a case not really involving a question of impossibility. Most discussions of the effect of subsequent impossibility of performance …
Implied Condition Involving Impossibility Of Performance, Edson R. Sunderland
Implied Condition Involving Impossibility Of Performance, Edson R. Sunderland
Articles
Early in 1914 the defendants contracted to sell to the plaintiffs a quantity of Finland birch timber. The practice was to send the timber direct by sea from Finnish ports. Before any timber was delivered the war broke out and the presence of German warships in the Baltic made the direct shipment by water impossible. The contract contained no war, force majeure or suspension provision. Held, that the contract was not dissolved, and the defendants were liable for damages for non-delivery of the timber. Blackburn Robbin Co., Lim. v. Allen & Sons, Lim. (1918) 87 L. J. K. B. 1085. …
Re-Writing The Statute Of Frauds: Part Performance In Equity, Willard T. Barbour
Re-Writing The Statute Of Frauds: Part Performance In Equity, Willard T. Barbour
Articles
One of the most striking examples of judicial legislation is that process whereby courts of equity, from the end of the seventeenth century onwards, have in no small measure re-written the Statute of Frauds. Exception was added to exception until the doctrine kmown as "part performance" became firmly established. The doctrine was not evolved consistently and the basis of some applications of it is obscure. One who follows Sir Edward Frys admirable but futile attempt (Fry, SPECIFIC PERFORMANCE (ed. 5) §§ 580, ff.) to systematize the variant decisions of the English courts must feel doubtful whether any single theory will …
Contract Of Infant--Evidence, Competency Of Witness Under Survivorship Statute, Victor H. Lane
Contract Of Infant--Evidence, Competency Of Witness Under Survivorship Statute, Victor H. Lane
Articles
Two questions are presented by the case of Sigiaigo v. Signaigo, (Mo. 1918), 205 S. W. Rep. 23: First, the enforcibility of the contract of an infant, fully performed by her, to live with a man and his wife as their adopted child so long as they should live, in consideration that the infant should have all the property of the foster parents upon their death; and Second, the competency of the consenting mother of the infant to testify in support of the infant's claim.
Effectiveness Of Oral Contracts, Within The Statute Of Frauds, John B. Waite
Effectiveness Of Oral Contracts, Within The Statute Of Frauds, John B. Waite
Articles
In Morris v. Baron and Co., (House of Lords, 1917), 87 L. J. R. (K. B.) 145, plaintiff and defendant had entered into a contract of sale and plaintiff, as vendor, had delivered part of the goods agreed upon. Delivery of the remainder would have been a condition precedent to any recovery by the plaintiff. This contract, however, was followed by a second one, not in writing, whereby plaintiff was absolved from delivering the rest of the goods, but by which he agreed that he would deliver them if the defendant should so request. Thereafter plaintiff brought this action for …
Performance Of An Existing Obligation As Consideration For A Promise, John B. Waite
Performance Of An Existing Obligation As Consideration For A Promise, John B. Waite
Articles
The dictum that if there be nothing in a rule flatly contradictory to reason the law will presume it to be well founded, and that the office of the judge is "jus dicere and not jus dare", is responsible for much agony of construction and tortious logic on the part of courts torn by desire to evade it in the interest of modern ideas of right. There is a trilogy of accepted legal principles which it has been particularly difficult for the courts to adhere to in spirit or to repudiate in letter. They are the propositions, that for a …
The 'Right' To Break A Contract, Willard T. Barbour
The 'Right' To Break A Contract, Willard T. Barbour
Articles
It is common knowledge that the fully developed common law affords no means to compel the performance of a contract according to its terms. Does it follow from this that there is no legal obligation to perform a contract, or if obligation there be, that it is alternative: to perform or pay damages? A note in the XIV MICH. L. REV. 480 appears to give an affirmative answer to this question and at least one court (Frye v. Hubbell, 74 N. H. 358, at p. 374) has taken the same view. Probably the most forcible exposition of this position is …
The 'Right' To Break A Contract, Willard T. Barbour
The 'Right' To Break A Contract, Willard T. Barbour
Articles
It is common knowledge that the fully developed common law affords no means to compel the performance of a contract according to its terms. Does it follow from this that there is no legal obligation to perform a contract, or if obligation there be, that it is alternative: to perform or pay damages? A note in the XIV MICH. L. REV. 480 appears to give an affirmative answer to this question and at least one court (Frye v. Hubbell, 74 N. H. 358, at p. 374) has taken the same view. Probably the most forcible exposition of this position is …
A Definition Of Consideration, John B. Waite
A Definition Of Consideration, John B. Waite
Articles
COMPOSING general statements of law is at best a didactic pursuit rather than a practically useful one, however agreeable an occupation it may be. The particulars of the past are not evaded by statement of their essence, and courts tend to guide their rulings by analogy to specific precedents in preference to rules educed therefrom by however studious laymen. And, on the other hand, the general expressions and definitions, so called, formulated by courts themselves, often hastily and hap-hazardly, which have been followed by other courts, do more to confuse the law, and confute its real precision of statement, than …
Recovery Of The Purchase Price Before Title Has Passed, John B. Waite
Recovery Of The Purchase Price Before Title Has Passed, John B. Waite
Articles
In an action recently instituted by The General Electric Co. to recover on a contract to manufacture certain machinery for the defendant, which machinery the defendant had refused to accept, the trial court adopted the contract price as the measure of damages. The upper court approved this measure of damages, rejecting the argument that the measure should have been the difference between the market value and the contract price, and dismissed, as no longer appropriate to modern conditions, the decisions in Bement v. Smith, 15 Wend. (N. Y.) 493, and Shawhan v. Van Nest. 25 Oh. St. 490. The court …
Performance Of Legal Obligation As A Consideration For A Promise, John B. Waite
Performance Of Legal Obligation As A Consideration For A Promise, John B. Waite
Articles
At a time when the true reasonableness of the common law and its responsiveness to the actualities of life are under criticism, it is interesting to find several cases, within the past year, affirming the old rule that performance of a legal duty is not consideration for a promise. In Vance v. Ellison, (V. Va.) 85 S. E. 776, suit was brought to enjoin the enforcement of a deed of trust executed by plaintiff to defendant, to secure payment of $1000 promised for legal services. It was admitted that when the deed was executed the defendant was already bound by …
Revocability Of Licenses - The Rule Of Wood V. Leadbitter, Ralph W. Aigler
Revocability Of Licenses - The Rule Of Wood V. Leadbitter, Ralph W. Aigler
Articles
That a mere license purporting to create in the licensee a new right or privilege is revocable at law at the will of the licensor seems to have been definitely settled in England by Wood v. Leadbitter, 13 M. & W. 838 (1845). It was there held that the plaintiff who had entered the close of the defendant's master after the purchase of a proper ticket could be forcibly ousted, notice having been first given that he should leave. The only remedy open to the ousted ticket holder-in law at least-no excessive violence1 having been used, is to sue for …
Liquidated Damages And Estoppel By Contract, Joseph H. Drake
Liquidated Damages And Estoppel By Contract, Joseph H. Drake
Articles
In the last edition of "Sedgwick's Elements of the Law of Damages" the author says (p. 232) that the subject of liquidated damages has been put in a new light by the two cases of the Sun Printing and Publishing Association v. Moore1 and the Clydebank R. &S. Co. v. Castaneda,2 and that they may be expected to have a considerable effect upon the further development of the law on the subject. The learned author then presents the old canons of interpretation with full illustration from the cases, followed by the citation of the decisions above mentioned, and concludes that …
Quasi-Contractual Obligations Of Municipal Corporations, Jerome C. Knowlton
Quasi-Contractual Obligations Of Municipal Corporations, Jerome C. Knowlton
Articles
We have constructive fraud, constructive trusts, constructive notice, and why not constructive contract, a contractual obligation existing in contemplation of law, in the absence of any agreement express or implied from facts? With this apology we shall use the term quasi contract as covering an obligation created by law and enforceable by an action ex contractu. We are not for the present interested in the circumstances which may give rise to this obligation as between individuals; nor as between an individual and a private corporation, or quasi public corporation, so-called, as a railroad or other public utility. In these cases …
The Public Policy Of Contracts To Will Future Acquired Property, Joseph H. Drake
The Public Policy Of Contracts To Will Future Acquired Property, Joseph H. Drake
Articles
The general subject of wills upon consideration seems to have given courts and jurists a good deal of trouble, not only in England and America, but also in the continental countries. The Code Napoleon appears in terms actually to prohibit the making of reciprocal or mutual wills in the same instrument.
Invalid Contracts For Contingent Fees, James H. Brewster
Invalid Contracts For Contingent Fees, James H. Brewster
Articles
It is not unusual that agreements between attorneys and clients providing for contingent fees contain a stipulation to the effect that no settlement of the controversy concerning which there is a bargain for fees shall be made by the client without the attorney's consent. In the recent case of Davy et at. v. Fidelity and Casualty Ins. Co., 85 N. E. 504, the Supreme Court of Ohio condemns such an agreement as champertous and, by the citation of many Ohio decisions, "demonstrates that this court has always maintained a consistent and unambiguous attitude in regard to contracts of the kind …
Freedom Of Contract, Jerome C. Knowlton
Freedom Of Contract, Jerome C. Knowlton
Articles
The liberty mentioned in the Fourteenth Amendment of the Federal Constitution "means not only the right of the citizen to be free from the mere physical restraint of his person, as by incarceration, but the term is deemed to embrace the right of the citizen to be free in the enjoyment of all his faculties; to be free to use them in all lawful ways; to live and work where he will; to earn his livelihood by any lawful calling; to pursue any livelihood or avocation, and for that purpose to enter into all contracts which may be proper, necessary …
Freedom Of Contract, Jerome C. Knowlton
Freedom Of Contract, Jerome C. Knowlton
Articles
The liberty mentioned in the Fourteenth Amendment of the Federal Constitution "means not only the right of the citizen to be free from the mere physical restraint of his person, as by incarceration, but the term is deemed to embrace the right of the citizen to be free in the enjoyment of all his faculties; to be free to use them in all lawful ways; to live and work where he will; to earn his livelihood by any lawful calling; to pursue any livelihood or avocation, and for that purpose to enter into all contracts which may be proper, necessary …
Contracts Of Sale Of Merchandise--Fraud On The Vendor, Levi T. Griffin
Contracts Of Sale Of Merchandise--Fraud On The Vendor, Levi T. Griffin
Articles
This is an interesting topic to every jobbing house, and to every attorney concerned with mercantile collections. The law is pretty well settled on the general subject and the Treatises on Sales are plentiful. Among the best is that of Mr. Benjamin. Tiffany on Sales of the Hornbrook Series recently issued assumes also to state briefly the principles which control in these cases. At large commercial and metropolitan points, and among lawyers who have occasion to often deal with this question, there is perhaps not much difficulty in arriving at correct conclusions, and promptly enforcing the rights of a defrauded …
Contracts Of Sale Of Merchandise--Fraud On The Vendor, Levi T. Griffin
Contracts Of Sale Of Merchandise--Fraud On The Vendor, Levi T. Griffin
Articles
In a former article (May number JOURNAL) fraud in contemplation of law, or legal fraud was considered. It was contended that a false representation, though honestly made and believed to be true, afforded sufficient ground to the vendor for rescinding a con- tract of sale. We now propose to briefly consider character of statements made, with some reference also to representations made to commercial agencies. It may be regarded as within the common knowledge of the profession, that the false representation must be the assertion of a fact, and usually of an existing fact, although the fact may depend upon …
The American Mutuum, Jerome C. Knowlton
The American Mutuum, Jerome C. Knowlton
Articles
The delivery of goods that may be accurately designated by number, weight or measure, such as corn or wine, on an undertaking that goods of like kind and quality shall be returned, creates what is known in the civil law as the contract of mutuum, a kind of bailment contract. Text writers on the common law regard such a transaction as a sale and not a bailment. "Where there is no obligation to return the specific article, and the receiver is at liberty to return another thing of equal value, he becomes debtor to make the return, and the title …
Subscriptions, Henry W. Rogers
Subscriptions, Henry W. Rogers
Articles
One cannot expect, within the limits of a single article, to exhaust the law relating to Subscriptions. But within the limits assigned, I propose to consider some portions of the law relating to this subject, which seem to me to be of sufficient interest and importance to merit attention in these pages. The subject of Subscriptions is seemingly a narrow one, and yet it has given rise to very considerable litigation, and out of it have come many interesting questions, upon the determination of which large pecuniary interests have often-times depended, especially in the case of Stock Subscriptions.
Davey V. Aetna Life Ins. Co., Henry W. Rogers
Davey V. Aetna Life Ins. Co., Henry W. Rogers
Articles
Professor Rogers considers a case where a life insurance policy appears to be voided by the use of alcoholic beverages by the insured, to the degree of cause of death. Rogers notes: "In the particular case the court was asked to give the following instruction: Th expression in the policy, 'became so far intemperate as to impair his health,' does not mean habitual intemperance; but an act of intemperance producing the impairment of health is within the condition of the policy, and renders the policy null and void except as therein provided...."
In the Application for Rule to Show Cause …
Detroit Savings Bank V. Zeigler, Henry W. Rogers
Detroit Savings Bank V. Zeigler, Henry W. Rogers
Articles
"Such interchanges of assistance between officers of a bank, as temporary need may require, is fairly within the contemplation of the appointment of such an officer, and the sureties on his bond are liable for a default made while he was temporarily filling the place of another officer.
"The receiving teller of the savings department of a bank, while filling the place of the general teller, during the latter's temporary absences, embezzled moneys of the bank: Held, that the sureties on a bond, given by him for so taken."
Effect Of A Change In The Law Upon Rights Of Actions And Defences, Thomas M. Cooley
Effect Of A Change In The Law Upon Rights Of Actions And Defences, Thomas M. Cooley
Articles
A very interesting and important question frequently is, what effect has been produced upon a right of action, or upon a previously existing defence to an action, by a change in the law effected by statute after the right has accrued, or the cause of action has arisen, to which the defence was applicable. The question is encountered in a great variety of cases, and is sufficiently important to be considered under the several heads where the cases seem to range themselves. This is done imperfectly below.
Of The Right To Waive A Tort And Sue In Assumpsit, Thomas M. Cooley
Of The Right To Waive A Tort And Sue In Assumpsit, Thomas M. Cooley
Articles
The distinctions between an action for a tort and one upon contract are such that where the one will lie the other generally will not; but there are nevertheless some cases in which either may be brought at the election of the party injured. Thus, it is sometimes the case, that, in a business relation, the law makes it the duty of a party to observe a certain course of conduct with regard to the rights of others, where by contract he has also undertaken for the same thing; and in such a case a breach of duty is coincident …
Of The Right To Waive A Tort And Sue In Assumpsit, Thomas M. Cooley
Of The Right To Waive A Tort And Sue In Assumpsit, Thomas M. Cooley
Articles
The distinctions between an action for a tort and one upon contract are such that where the one will lie the other generally will not; but there are nevertheless some cases in which either may be brought at the election of the party injured. Thus, it is sometimes the case, that, in a business relation, the law makes it the duty of a party to observe a certain course of conduct with regard to the rights of others, where by contract he has also undertaken for the same thing; and in such a case a breach of duty is coincident …